Wright makes Right

Back when Bush the Elder was running for President, campaign strategist Lee Atwatersaid he was going to make Willie Horton into Michael Dukakis‘ running mate. He did, and it was a lesson that has been applied to great effect ever since.

Religious voters in Indiana and North Carolina held to familiar patterns in Democratic primary balloting Tuesday, with the controversy over Sen. Barack Obama’s relationship with his former pastor deepening the divide.

Exit polling sought associations between votes, race, religious affiliations and frequent churchgoing. What it didn’t probe, apparently, was talk radio listening. Every time I hit SCAN on the car radio’s AM band, Rush or Savage or some other right-wing yakker is still working the topic like a fat piece of gum.

The line of attack is clear: not that Obama is himself radical or unpatriotic, just that, as a man of the academic Left, he is so out of touch with everyday America that he could move so easily and untroubled in such extreme company and among such alien and elitist sentiments.

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The man who was the Clinton campaign’s number one advisor has PR clients including a major international corporation that actively influences US policy (MSFT) and a foreign government that is lobbying to influence US policy. And his company is still a key contractor for the Clinton campaign.

Where are the calls to give Mark Penn a fair trial, then hang him?

Does the Media have a built-in filter to “ignore the PR flack” even when the PR flack is, himself, a story?

Why are people so eager to give a man who was untroubled – until it became politically difficult to be otherwise – by a 20 year relationship with a hate filled, racist pastor? Listen to Wright’s talk at the NAACP, where he explained how the “black brain” and the “white brain” were different.

Now, imagine that a white person with whom McCain had a 20 year, close personal relationship said that. Do you think he’d get a pass? Why are people so willing to expect less of Obama? If you truly want to be beyond race, then hold him to equivalent standards.

Do I think the Wright Matter casts some doubt on Obama? Sure. But does it define Obama completely? Not to me. Clearly it does to right wing talk radio, which is why they’ll be banging on it for the duration. Or until a better bit of dirt comes along.

I’ve said before it’s pretty clear that the relationship with Wright was clearly through Michelle Obama. (Christopher Hitchens suggests the same thing.) She will also become an Issue before this thing is over. She already is, thanks to one dumb thing she said. More will come out. Her college thesis, for example.

– pals with a complete nut (Wright) who has racist, hateful ideas
– pals with an avowed, unrepentent terrorist (Ayers) – he launched his political career in Ayers’ house, and served on boards with him
– pals with Hamas’ reps in the US – he just canned an adviser who met with Hamas last week
– pals with corrupt Chicago pols (Rezko) who helped him start his career

At some point, you look at the people he’s decided to be close to and start wondering – if not about his beliefs, at least about his judgment.